Nomad families have taken delivery of 60,0000 portable solar power generators in the last three years, the deputy head of Nomadic Affairs Organization said.
“Of the total 250,000 nomad households, 40,000 in the remote areas now have access to electricity during their journeys,” Shapour Alaei-Moqaddam was quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry news portal.
Expanding access to renewable energy by nomads via mobile light photovoltaic panels is on the agenda, Alaei-Moqaddam added.
Portable solar panels are small gadgets that are easy to install and can be carried anywhere as they do not need to be linked to the national grid. Usually, they come with a kit that includes additional tools like a stand, cable, storage case, solar charge controller, inverter and a battery.
“Mobile solar panels generate enough power to help families meet their needs like charging emergency lights and cell phones and use the TV in the deserts and plains.”
Nomads generally are on the move in search of pasture and water for cattle, set up tents and nurture livestock.
Technology has created the conditions to help tribes with facilities to ease their daily, often difficult, tasks without interfering in their way of life.
However, rapid expansion of urban areas has negatively impacted nomadic populations that mostly straddle regions in South Khorasan, Fars, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari and Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad provinces.
“Data show nomads made up almost one-fourth of Iran's population a century ago.” Today the number is below 2% of the total population of 80 million.
Nomads in Iran produce more than 200,000 tons of red meat per year. Domestic red meat output is around 860,000 tons a year of which nomads produce 25%.
Iran has 1.2 million nomads spread across 59% of the country's land, breeding 22 million light livestock accounting for 28% of the total.
According to Karamali Qandali, the head of Nomadic Affairs Organization, Iran’s nomads annually produce 6 million tons of farm products.
Nomads have a 35% share in Iran’s carpet exports and a similar percentage in handicraft production.
Rural Electrification
Separately, Paven quoted Ali Chehel Amirani, director of rural electrification affairs at the government-affiliated Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir), over $900 million has been invested to expand power grids to small towns and villages since 2015.
Funding went largely for installing towers, building substations for transmission and distribution, expanding high voltage power transmission lines and aerial transmission cables.
More than 5,000 small rural communities home to 4.5 million households are now connected to the grid. An estimated 21 million Iranians live in rural areas.
Length of the national power distribution network stretches over 800,000 kilometers of which “250,000 km is for supplying electricity to underdeveloped rural communities," the official noted, adding that 400 villages will be linked to the national grid by next March.
So far 96% of the rural population has access to stable power.
Iran’s installed power capacity has surpassed 85,000 megawatts. Around 72,000 MW comes from thermal plants, 12,000 MW from hydroelectric plants and 1,000 MW from the sole nuclear power plant in Bushehr. Renewables share is 980 MW.
